Chapter 1278: Retreating After A Defeat

Was this self-destruction?!

 The thought of Gu Jimie doing that brought a shiver to Shen Pojun.

“It isn’t!”

He determined that this massive increase in energy wasn’t as volatile as one would expect from someone self-destructing. The energy waves radiating from Gu Jimie was for something else.

It had to be some kind of powerful attack given how much explosive energy was being charged. Clearly the man had something up his sleeves.

And so Shen Pojun thought it prudent to up his guard. As fortunate it was that the Frostfeather Saint was here, it wasn’t time to get too relaxed. To finish this battle, he’d need to be even more serious than before.

His observation of Gu Jimie paid off a moment later when all of a sudden, a powerful figure shot out across the sky!

“An avatar?!”

He cried out, alarmed by the sight of the figure. It wasn’t Gu Jimie himself flying into the sky, but an avatar!

Given that Gu Jimie was a newly-ascended Saint, his avatar would only be a Peak Late-stage Soul Emperor at best. What was the point of making one now?!

It took Shen Pojun a moment to think before he gasped!

Sneering as though to respond to Shen Pojun, the avatar began to shine with a brilliant light!

“Boom!!”

Right in front of Shen Pojun, a tremendous source of soulforce suddenly exploded!

He really did self-destruct!!

Gu Jimie used his own avatar to self-destruct!

The destruction of an avatar doesn’t physically harm one’s life, but their soul instead. Damage done to the soul was an injury exponentially harder to recover from!

It was for the sake of the Crafting School that Chu Yintian sacrificed his avatar. He had yet to fully recover from that even after Bai Yunfei gave him a high-grade pill to use. Even for Gu Jimie, destroying their avatar would definitely cause him to lose a great deal amount of power.

Using an avatar like that wouldn’t be effective at all against a Saint like Shen Pojun. But if used for a self-destruct, there would definitely be an effect! Such an explosion could cause a fatal wound if he wasn’t careful.

Perturbed by the ‘suicidal’ tactic of Gu Jimie, Shen Pojun retreated at once. His soulforce wrapped around him protectively as his parasol-shaped and shield-shaped soul armaments came down to protect him.

“Boom boom boom…”

The volatile energy of Gu Jimie’s self-destruction slammed into Shen Pojun’s defenses shortly afterward. Waves of energy surged onto the surface of both Shen Pojun’s soul armaments with such force that the soul armaments seemed to quiver and quake.

But they held. Calm-faced as the last of the torrent subsided, Shen Pojun took a single step forward to re-evaluate his foe.

Using an avatar to self-destruct was a tactic hardly seen by anyone. It was a brutish tactic. But if someone was capable of doing that, then what kind of follow-up would they have to top it off?

Shen Pojun expected a harsh follow-up, but when he saw Gu Jimie… 

At the same time when his avatar self-destructed, Gu Jimie did the opposite of what Shen Pojun expected and…ran in the opposite direction!

“Retreat!!!”

A humiliated, yet furious, scream echoed across the sky a moment after that!

Was he running away?!

A high and mighty Saint was…running?!

There was no epic fight to the death nor a tragic scene where one opponent had availed himself over the other. After sacrificing his avatar, Gu Jimie was running away!

The scene boggled the mind and stunned Shen Pojun.

Aside from the common ideology of ‘Sanctimony of the Powerful’ where it was expected that any strong person act in a way exemplary of their station, what Gu Jimie did was reasonably valid. He knew he had no chance to win now that the Frostfeather Saint, so the most logical thing to do was to cut his losses and guide his army in a safe retreat.

His voice carried itself across the sky and made its way into the ears of all those who were fighting down below.

“Te—teacher?!”

Alarmed, Nether whipped his head up to stare at Gu Jimie in confusion.

“Boom!!”

Another explosion took place practically moments after Gu Jimie’s own actions. Shangguan Xiongyan had finally managed to break free from the Frostfeather Saint’s assault to fly toward Gu Jimie.

“We’re leaving!!”

A similar command boomed forth from his mouth.

Like Gu Jimie, Shangguan Xiongyan was utterly humiliated. Not only was he being bested in battle, but he was also having all his plans go wrong. With him losing against the Frostfeather Saint and Gu Jimie not being able to endure for much longer, he had to come to the same decision as Gu Jimie and call off the assault least he find himself losing his life here… 

“Hmph!”

Not satisfied with this game of cat and mouse, the Frostfeather Saint gave chase after Shangguan Xiongyan.

On the other side, Shen Pojun was making his way over as well. He wasn’t willing to let that self-destruct be the last noteworthy thing about this battle.

……

Confusion splashed across the battlefield as everyone from the Soul Refining School and Fate School began to fly this way and that!

Despite having the superior numbers, the two schools were relying on the two Saints to come back down and aid them afterward. But now that the entire war was going bottom-sides up for them, the Soul Emperors could no longer depend on the Saints to help them.

It was a failure. A massive failure of very abrupt timing.

They had hard times believing it, but they had to. If the Saints were giving the call to retreat, wouldn’t staying here mean they’d lose their lives for sure then?!

All at once, everyone began to fight like cornered animals. They were desperately trying their best to avoid whomever they were fighting and running away to safety.

“Im—impossible!!”

Mo Ni’s face was completely white as he watched the scene in front of him. It was simply too heavy of a shock to see their Saint running away. In fact, he could hardly even think right now because of the shock.

But like the others, he too, began to flee. 

“Whoosh!”

A crimson sword shot past him, nearly grazing Mo Ni in the cheek when he threw himself to the side to dodge.

“Damn! Can’t you die already!”

Furious that he was being stopped by Li Chengfeng, Mo Ni threw out a gray beam of light toward him!

Li Chengfeng stepped back, fully aware of the danger contained within that beam of light. In one fluid motion, he stepped back forward with his Meteoric Striker ready to intercept!

“Clang!!”

Accurately, the Meteoric Striker struck the beam of light squarely on the surface of its blade and deflected it harmlessly upward so Li Chengfeng could grab hold of it.

“Damn!!”

Mo Ni howled in frustrated anger. He wanted to charge at Li Chengfeng and reclaim his soul armament, but it was far too dangerous for that. He snarled one last time in reluctance before flying off in another direction to flee.

Li Chengfeng wasn’t able to give immediate chase due to the black needle in his hand. Gripping it tightly so it wouldn’t escape, he flew off after Mo Ni.

“Gui Nu!!”

Mo Ni roared. At once, a bloody streak of light appeared right next to Mo Ni. A beam of blood-red energy

Altering course, Li Chengfeng moved to strike down the beam of energy. He did so without trouble, but by the time he was done, Gui Nu had already taken Mo Ni a considerable distance away…