Chapter 988: Left With No More Trump Cards

“What?!”

To say Song Qing was surprised was an understatement. Yes, Bai Yunfei’s Dual Dragon Burst had a sliver of chaotic energy in it—and that was already a huge shock—his attack should’ve beaten it still. The Dual Dragon Burst was a great deal stronger than he gave it credit for, as it had still enough power to attack him still!

What also surprised him was the fact that his attack had just suddenly gone missing. One moment it was there in front of Bai Yunfei, and in the next moment…it wasn’t?!

“What is all this?!”

From what he could tell, Bai Yunfei didn’t do anything. His soulforce hadn’t even fluctuated in ways that might’ve indicated otherwise. Qing Song’s attack had simply just disappeared into thin air without him knowing what had happened.

It felt almost surreal to Qing Song how many times he had been surprised by Bai Yunfei in such a short amount of time. Never in his entire life had he experienced so many mysteries embodied within a single person as Bai Yunfei was showing him.

“If I want you dead, then you will die!!” Qing Song snarled. 

How could a mere Soul King be resisting him so? The fact that Bai Yunfei was still alive was an upfront to the Half-emperor. 

A shroud of darkness gathered around the man to protect him from the incoming flames. A giant demonic figure materialized from the cloak then to advance towards the sea of flames!

It smashed into the flames with a loud moan. Both of its arms struggled and wriggled as it tried to scatter apart the flames and stop it from hitting its master!

This was clearly some kind of defensive-type soul skill!

It didn’t seem nearly enough to stop the flames, however. People could see that its skin was already starting to melt from the heat, and the longer it stuck to the flames, the faster the demon seemed to lose its form.

Again, Song Qing was surprised by how powerful the Dual Dragon Burst was. Never had he felt so much danger come from a Soul King before!

He had no chance defending against the chaotic energy should it touch him, as it would simply tear apart whatever elemental barrier he could put into place. But it would still require time for the chaotic energy to melt away his defenses! 

All he had to do was reach Bai Yunfei first and attack!

Song Qing was very much interested in seeing just how Bai Yunfei would react in a close-quarter fight!!

“Ha!!” He sneered in preparation to close the distance.

It was time for a soul attack!

The soul attack of a Half-emperor should definitely be enough to cause even Bai Yunfei to have a lapse in motion. 

And Bai Yunfei knew that. The expression on Bai Yunfei’s face faltered for a moment as he realized a soul attack was quickly coming his way. The Cataclysmic Seal was already coming out in preparation to protect its owner from any physical attack Song Qing might try to pull off.

But then a pulse of energy from one of his soul armaments caused him to smile in glee!

The Yun’s Soul Ring was starting to pulsate with a warm glow of light!

The +12 additional effect of the Yun’s Soul Ring had activated!

The effect had a small probability to activate so Bai Yunfei didn’t really expect for the ring to do much. Luckily for him, the ring did, in fact, choose to activate!

“Die!!” Song Qing roared.

He swung his hand out, not to send a beam of light flying at Bai Yunfei, but a strange white blade made from what appeared to be the bones of a human!

This was a soul armament!! Any soul armament used by a Half-emperor would definitely be of extreme power. This soul armament in particular just had to be a high-heaven tier!

Wailing through the skies as it traveled, the bone-white blade made a direct beeline for Bai Yunfei’s throat!

Using a soul attack at this juncture would see to Bai Yunfei having to freeze for a moment. And that moment would be when the blade would hit him. Song Qing had no doubts that this would finish Bai Yunfei off!

“Swish!!”

Then came the moment Song Qing was waiting for. The weapon made contact with Bai Yunfei’s throat, but rather than seeing it stop there, Qing Song was alarmed to see it go straight ‘through’ him!

It was as if the weapon had gone through thin air instead of a person!

Song Qing noticed then something was strange with Bai Yunfei’s aura…it wasn’t there! Though Bai Yunfei was standing right there in front of him, his figure had a slightly transparent shine to him, and his aura was nowhere to be felt! If not for him being right there, Qing Song would’ve thought there wasn’t anyone there!

“What is this?!”

Something within Song Qing’s body trembled. Raising his hand, he crooked a finger to call his soul armament back to him. It obeyed his command and turned around to fly through Bai Yunfei again!

“Useless again!!” Song Qing exclaimed to himself. He couldn’t understand it, what was going on here?!

Bai Yunfei was without a doubt standing in front of him. He could distinctly see Bai Yunfei go through several hand seals! But for some reason, his aura was nowhere to be felt!

This was the +10 additional effect of the Core Stone activating!!

It was a trump card Bai Yunfei waited until the very last moment to make use of. That was because…with this, he could finally land the decisive blow!

“Bang!!!”

Bai Yunfei came back into the real world two seconds later. His aura was picked up straight away by Song Qing this time, but he was surprised to see that his aura was…back to his prime strength! He was nowhere as weak as he was after firing of the Dual Dragon Burst!

This was…Soul Ignition!

When Bai Yunfei was in that extra dimension, he wasn’t readying up an attack of any kind. He was actually trying to recover his strength with Soul Ignition!

Song Qing was stunned. Never had he been in a fight where a person’s strength could jump so drastically from one point to another! 

“Freeze!”

Then at that moment, his body joined his mind in coming to a stop!

The Soul Anchoring Technique!

Shivering from head to toe, Bai Yunfei forced a groan from escaping his lips. He was clearly trying to concentrate as hard as he could to unleash an all-out attack!

Before the Dual Dragon Burst, Bai Yunfei had the power of a Peak Late-stage Soul King. Soul Ignition was something that allowed him to make up the power he had lost after using the Dual Dragon Burst. In other words, not even the Half-emperor Song Qing would be able to take a hit from him so easily now!

A drawback existed, however. Because of Soul Ignition, Bai Yunfei was unable to pull off any other move after he used the Soul Anchoring Technique!

Song Qing was only affected by the Soul Anchoring Technique for a brief moment. The Fire-tipped Spear might’ve been able to kill Song Qing had Bai Yunfei the chance to make use of its +13 additional effect, but that wasn’t possible. He had already used it beforehand, so the effect was still on cooldown!

Were…were all the trump cards he used for naught? Had everything he did to get this far a waste of effort if he couldn’t do anything to kill Song Qing?!