Chapter 915: The Malicious Mo Ni: Soul Puppetry!

“Hey…hey! This can’t be real, can it?? Qin Shoufeng being killed by Bai Yunfei?!”

“I was hoping that my eyes were just going bad, but…that person was definitely Qin Shoufeng!! He came to start some trouble with Bai Yunfei? And he…died for it!?”

“This is big news! Big news I say!! How will people react to something as crazy as this?! The entire city will definitely go in an uproar for this!”

“Right! This wasn’t just your average person being killed…it’s Qin Shoufeng! And the killer was Bai Yunfei of the Crafting School! How…how will people react to that?!”

“Something was weird about that fight! What kind of idiot was Qin Shoufeng to go rushing towards his own death? What was he aiming for?”

“What else could he be, you think he had a ghost possessing him? Qin Shoufeng had his name dragged through the mud, of course he’d be angry. I just never thought he’d be so angry that he’d self-destruct…”

“And Qin Shouhao’s here now! At least he’s the smarter one. He knows he can’t beat Bai Yunfei so he went home for reinforcements!”

“We’ve got a show now! Will Bai Yunfei run away? If he doesn’t, then he’ll be in for a hard time if he gets caught by the Qin!”

“What happened just now was Qin Shoufeng’s fault! It doesn’t matter how Bai Yunfei tries to spin it, if he sticks around, he’ll never be able to convince the Qin of his innocence! And even if he runs away knowing this, the Qin will chase him to no end!”

“Ai, but…it was Bai Yunfei’s soulbeast that saved us just now! We were all witnesses to Qin Shoufeng self-destructing just now, do you think we should be the proof for Bai Yunfei…?”

“Look…I’m not here to catch any trouble! If I get involved in this and earn a grudge with the Qin, I’ll die for sure!”

“That’s true…we should watch from the sidelines for now then…”

“……”

A little ways away from where Qin Shoufeng self-destructed gathered a decently-sized group of people. They were people who weren’t too close from where Qin Shoufeng and Bai Yunfei clashed, but they weren’t too far away either. Several of these people had been in the auction and recognized Bai Yunfei when he came out. They were all discussing what they had seen for a moment before a few turned to head into Swallow City to spread the news with haste.

“Eh? Look! Qin Shouhao fell into that forest there!”

“No way?! Was Bai Yunfei’s punch earlier that powerful? Qin Shouhao can’t even fly back home to call for reinforcements now?!”

“Hey…you think we should go over and see what’s happening?”

“You having a laugh there? Let’s just wait here and see…”

Everyone had been watching Qin Shouhao fly through the skies before he suddenly and without warning fell from the skies!

    ……

“Bang!!”

Qin Shouhao collided onto the ground with a heavy thud. The elemental wind around him tore a heavy crater into the dirt and left Qin Shouhao uninjured but with a stunned expression on his face.

He had been flying on top of his flying sword when he felt like a hammer was smashed into his head. Disorientated in both the head and soul, he spiraled down to the ground below.

He had been hit by a soul attack!!

Qin Shouhao realized it as well, but it was too late to do anything about it! A powerful aura was already coming at him from behind!

He slammed against the ground to kick and tumble across the ground. Bouncing onto his feet, Qin Shouhao withdrew his mid-heaven tier soul armament to protect himself.

He was fast in reacting to danger, but his ‘ambusher’ was even faster in attacking!

The ambusher was already upon him by the time he turned around. Qin Shouhao realized then that his ambusher’s hand was gripping onto his head tightly!

“Ahh!!!”

A garbled choke came out from Qin Shouhao’s throat. Fearful for his life, he lashed out with his sword only to have it rebuffed. The next thing Qin Shouhao knew was the sensation of a small thin object go through his head before he was in for a split-second moment of intense pain.

And then, nothing… 

The hand pressed against Qin Shouhao’s forehead drew back to allow him to crumple to the ground like a puppet with their strings cut.

His ambusher chose then to step out from the shadows…It was Mo Ni!!

And behind him stood the Black Dragon King.

Mo Ni stared at the crumpled body of Qin Shouhao. His eyes shined with a strange gleam before he started to go through several complicated hand seals. His soulforce started to twist and surge before it came out from his body in the form of a black serpentine twine of smoke.

The smoke swirled around Mo Ni as he started on the second sequence of hand seals. His left hand clutched at the wrist of his right, and the right jabbed out with his forefinger and index finger to point onto Qin Shouhao’s forehead!

The black smoke swirled one last time around his body before it traveled down his arm to ‘drill’ into Qin Shouhao’s forehead!

Qin Shouhao’s body jerked unnaturally as the black smoke entered it. The black smoke was like a controlled shock of electricity to urge the muscles in Qin Shouhao to move. 

Then a series of lights started to flash in both Mo Ni and Qin Shouhao’s eyes!

The synchronicity lasted for only a few moments before the last of the black energy entered Qin Shouhao’s body. His body had stopped convulsing too when Mo Ni brought his hand back, and the light was gone from his eyes now.

Mo Ni stood up to wipe the sweat from his brows. He breathed out a laborious breath as if he had just finished something physically taxing, but he was pleased. 

“Go forward. Your task is to destroy your own essence originseed in front of Bai Yunfei…”

A flash of light re-entered Qin Shouhao’s eyes at the command. His head snapped unnaturally fast towards the southern gates before standing upright. Kicking against the ground, Qin Shouhao took off towards Bai Yunfei!

Black Dragon King watched Qin Shouhao take off curiously. “This is the second time you’re using ‘Soul Puppetry’, and this time it’s even more blatant than before. Aren’t you afraid someone might find out? You’ll be leaving clues back to the Soul Refining School…”

Mo Ni wiped another bead of sweat from his forehead. “It’s only a problem for a moment. He’ll be a million pieces in a short while, who’ll know then? Going insane after seeing his brother killed is ‘normal’...As long as he dies, no one will say this was something irrational, won’t they?”

He turned away to look in the direction of Swallow City and sneered sadistically. “Just in time too…I would like to see how you escape this time…”

    ……

“Eh? Qin Shouhao is coming back! Wasn’t he heavily injured? Why’d he fall to the ground then?”

“No! Something’s off with his aura! It looks like its ready to devour his own body!”

“What’s…what’s he doing coming back?! Wasn’t he going back to Swallow City for reinforcements?”

“No way!! Take a look at what he’s doing, he’s ready to fight Bai Yunfei! What’s going on here?!”

Qin Shouhao’s sudden leap out from the forest was caught immediately by all the spectators there—Bai Yunfei included. No one expected him to charge in the direction of Bai Yunfei.

Bai Yunfei had been standing in the area he had been in to wait and think of what to do, so he was surprised to see Qin Shouhao come back.

“What’s he doing coming back here!?”

What was Qin Shouhao doing coming back? Did he find some ‘reinforcements’ so quickly already?

“He didn’t! I don’t see anyone else, but…his aura is strange!”

He did catch onto the strangeness of Qin Shouhao’s aura, which led to his further confusion and also sinking feeling in his stomach… 

“Bai Yunfei! I’ll have you accompany my brother into the next!! Die!!!”

Qin Shouhao bellowed loudly. As he approached, a green tornado quickly materialize to engulf both him and Bai Yunfei!

The tornado quickly expanded to over a hundred meters in circumference to cut off the outside world from the eye. Only Qin Shouhao and Bai Yunfei were left in the middle. 

One second burst of green light later and Qin Shouhao suddenly appeared right in front of Bai Yunfei!

It was then that Bai Yunfei took in the expression on Qin Shouhao’s face. A face more venomous than venom, eyes that reflected more irrational anger than light, and lips…with an uncharacteristic sneer… 

And then there was that frightening aura coming from within his body which seemed ready to burst!

    ……

“Boom!!!”

An explosion even louder than the one Qin Shouhao caused exploded a moment afterward. The entire area tremored as dust and dirt flew up into the air as a wave of powerful soulforce billowed away from where the two stood!

Qin Shouhao had…self-destructed in front of Bai Yunfei!

“Shouhao!! No!!!”

Like Qin Shouhao had done for his brother before, there was another anguished roar coming from Swallow City the moment when Qin Shouhao self-destructed. Another moment later, the aura of an even more powerful person descended upon the area!