Chapter 1255: A Critical Juncture

“What?!’

The discussion was gone, but the hall still remained noisy with everyone rushing to their feet.

While they were in the middle of discussing what to do about the Crafting School, the said school was at their gates!? So soon?! It hadn’t even been a few days since the battle! Had they rushed over here immediately afterward? Without rest?

“Where are they, how many are there?” The female Soul Emperor asked.

“They’re…they’re at the front of the gates…it’s just Bai Yunfei by himself!”

“A single person? Pah—the audacity! How dare a single person like him demand from our school?! Let me go out and kill him, for revenge for my brother!” Huo Zhenxiao roared in anger, ready to move the moment the order was given.

“Elder Huo, please stay your hand for now,” Duan Leiting tried his best to pacify Huo Zhenxiao’s anger, “Have you forgotten about the Core Stone in his possession? It is unlikely he’s by himself. I never imagined they would be so fast to arrive here, could those rumors of the Crafting School being practically unharmed be true then? It’s unfathomable…”

“Pah!! So what if he brought one or two crafters with him? How many of them can they afford to send against us? I doubt they’d bring the whole school with him! Who’d be left to protect their school then! It’s impossible they’d be at full fighting power after all they went through! Do they take our school to be completely without experts now? I say we kill them all! Not only will we gain our revenge, we’ll be able to take the Regalia from Bai Yunfei and increase our own strength!”

Huo Zhenxiao was completely ablaze with fury now as he announced his own plans.

Dong Wanfeng stood up, his eyes icily calm, “Regardless of the case, we have an enemy at our gates. Weakened or not, they are here, and as guests, they should be ‘received’. Zhenxiao, make the preparations to activate the protective array.”

“Yes, master!!”

……

At the gates to the Wind Lightning School, Bai Yunfei stood there in the air to overlook the surrounding mountains around him.

He hadn’t bothered to hide his presence when he arrived here, so the students of the Wind Lightning School had been very quick to detect him. The fact that he didn’t bother to hide himself for an ambush or another kind of underhanded tactic was proof that he was here to openly proclaim that he was here to ‘demand’ payment.

It was only for a moment, but Bai Yunfei didn’t have to wait for long before space opened up in front of him and a person walked out from it.

One person became multiple, and soon there was a crowd in front of Bai Yunfei. He narrowed his eyes. It would appear that the Wind Lightning School still had plenty of people left in their reserves. As expected from one of the Ten Schools, they were a powerful group indeed.

“He’s Bai Yunfei? He’s a Mid-stage Soul Emperor…what kind of genius is he…?”

Dong Wanfeng wondered to himself in surprise. It was hard to believe that the youth in front of him could be this powerful. Based off of age, this youth was hardly any different than the ones from the newer generation of his own school. But based on power, this youth was a Mid-stage Soul Emperor. Calling him a ‘genius’ wasn’t even close to being appropriate to what he really was… 

“Bai Yunfei! We know you have the Core Stone, bring out all the elders from the Crafting School! Why hide them all if you’re here?! If you came to sling your insults to our school, you’ll regret it soon enough!!”

Huo Zhenxiao roared. It was hard for him to stay behind with the others instead of tearing forward to tear Bai Yunfei limb from limb, but his instincts were telling him to first see how many people were with Bai Yunfei first.

“Regrets? The reason why we are here today is so your school will be the one to know regret!” Bai Yunfei responded in kind. Waving his right hand, he called out a massive crowd of people from the Core World to walk out behind him.

Shen Pojun, Chu Yintian, Xiao Binzi, Kou Changkong, Huangfu Nan…aside from the recuperating Zi Jin, all sorts of members, even the Soul Kings such as Tang Xinyun were there in attendance. Where the Wind Lightning School once outnumbered Bai Yunfei, now the people standing with him completely outstripped the school in numbers.

“……”

The Wind Lightning School was aghast. Even the Soul Emperors, such as Dong Wanfeng, were completely bewildered. 

“It—it’s impossible!! Did everyone from the Crafting School come here? Do they not care about their own school?!”

Everyone became frantic at once—for the sake of revenge, it seemed as if the entire Crafting School had decided to vacate their schoolgrounds! Given the numbers here, any single Soul Emperor could probably conquer the empty schoolgrounds if they had the chance!

They just never imagined that the entire Crafting School was actually being carried around on Bai Yunfei’s person.

“I trust you’ve been well since our last encounter, Dong Wanfeng…”

A voice spoke into Dong Wanfeng’s mind at that moment. Peering at the person next to Bai Yunfei, Dong Wanfeng gasped. 

“Shen Pojun!!”

The elder gave Dong Wanfeng an icy glare. “Neither our schools had anything against one another, and yet you’ve the audacity to try and destroy mine…Today, we have come to spread the teachings.”

“Were you the one to kill my brother?!” Dong Wanfeng demanded, furious.

“Dong Wanlei?” Shen Pojun replied, “That was my doing.”

A muscle twitched in Dong Wanfeng’s face. He was clearly furious by the reply. As much as he wanted to hurl himself at Shen Pojun and fight, he knew better than that. Besides, he was too shocked to properly gauge the situation right now. If Shen Pojun did kill Dong Wanlei, and he believed that, then Shen Pojun surely had to have been injured from the effort. And wasn’t Gu Lianhun’s avatar there to help Dong Wanlei? The combined efforts of the two should’ve done a great amount of harm to Shen Pojun, so why was he standing there without even an iota of his health seemingly injured?

The way Shen Pojun held his aura in check made it impossible for Dong Wanfeng to see how strong the man was. As such, Dong Wanfeng could only assume Shen Pojun was the same as he always was, on the edge of Sainthood, but not quite there. 

Thinking about it a little more, Dong Wanfeng was certain that Shen Pojun was only stronger than him by a ‘sliver’ at best… 

The more he thought about it, the more troubled he became. All his previous calculations had assumed the Wind Lightning School would have some semblance of a chance. But given the current situation, he knew that they no longer had even a hope. They didn’t even have hope of survival even if they withdrew and relied on their barrier to protect them.

Perhaps they could bow their heads and ask for mercy? Or perhaps they should fight to the death? Could he perhaps ask for a compromise? Would they even agree to such a thing? 

If they really fought, how many enemies would they kill? How many would survive? Would the Wind Lightning School ever be able to hold power in the continent again?

All sorts of thoughts entered and left Dong Wanfeng’s head at once. It caused him a great headache just thinking about the right decision to make.

But while he was thinking, the others in his group were not as patient as he was. “Crafting School!” Huo Zhenxiao roared.

“Your actions are intolerable! Do you want to destroy our Wind Lightning School down to its roots?! Come at us then!! You’ll have to step over my dead body first! From this moment onward, there can be no compromise between us! Killer of my brother, Huo Zhenting, step forward if you have the courage to fight me!”

Dong Wanfeng faltered a moment at the loss of control of Huo Zhenxiao, but it was too late to stop the momentum. Would the enemy even accept such a challenge?

But then the completely unexpected happened—someone was actually willing to accept it… 

Bai Yunfei’s eyes glistened as he listened to Huo Zhenxiao’s words. Then he stepped forward from the crowd.

“I was the one to kill Huo Zhenting. If you want revenge, then I’ll fight you!”