Chapter 1225: A Duel Between Spirits

Bai Yunfei grew elated at the voice. “You found a way to neutralize his core?!”

“We did! It’s not the power of a soul armament, but actually a battle between spirits! Just like how he managed to not get sealed, Core and I should be able to hinder his ability to rejuvenate!”

It filled Bai Yunfei with no small amount of glee to hear such a response. “Alright!” He responded as he fired off even more fireballs, “I’ll be counting on you then!”

“Bzz….”

One moment later and Bai Yunfei could feel the Soul Sealing Mandate and Core Stone start to resonate. Their activations differed compared to a soul armament since they contained a spirit within themselves. Therefore, their activation carried with it a ‘presence’. 

But not even this type of activation felt the same as usual. There was…a type of energy carried with their activation, a type of energy that was clearly meant to be offensive rather than defensive!

Their combined energy disseminated through the air toward the center of the elemental storm where Dongfang Ming was. But no sooner did they reach the edge of the storm did they immediately get struck by a similar type of energy!

Aside from what his senses were telling him, Bai Yunfei had no way of describing what was going on. If he had to put it into words, then this ‘shapeless’ battle happening in front of him symbolized a duel between spirits!

All sorts of elemental energy was being mixed in this area, making it very hard for anyone to see anything. There was also a healthy mixture of chaotic energy added to the mix, thus making it hard for soulsense to do a thing. Fortunately, Bai Yunfei was able to just barely make out where Dongfang Ming was and what he was up to.

He didn’t know what Dongfang Ming was up to, but he severely doubted that his and Xiao Qi’s attacks would be completely ineffective on the man. This was a situation where Bai Yunfei had the definite upper hand!

“As powerful as his rejuvenation is, it’s not infallible! All Sealer has to do is drain enough energy from it so it’ll fall into hibernation just like Sentinel did. I’ll be the victorious one then!!”

Bai Yunfei had extreme confidence in this new plan, but not so much that he would take Dongfang Ming lightly. He would fight just as seriously as before.

Both Bai Yunfei and Xiao Qi were rapidly using up their soulforce, but their own soul armaments and the Phantasm was boosting their rate of recovery. On the inverse, Dongfang Ming was using up an exorbitant sum of soulforce himself since he had to rely on the elemental fire his own body produced as well as use his soulforce and soul armaments to protect him. Without time to rest, Dongfang Ming was pressed hard for time and lost more ground the more he fought.

“I…I want to help too!!”

An ‘unfamiliar’ voice abruptly spoke out into Bai Yunfei’s mind as he was firing fireballs at Dongfang Ming, startling him so much that he nearly stopped attacking.

It took him a moment to put a name to the voice, “Is this..Sentinel?!”

“I want to help! Yunfei…”

As if in response to Bai Yunfei, the voice grew louder and more determined.

It was the spirit of the Soul Sentinel Scarf!!

This was the first time the spirit had spoken to Bai Yunfei since Heavenfire helped awaken the Regalia. The two had ‘communicated’ in a sense before, but never had the two spoken to one another like they were doing now.

“Oh? You’re not hiding in your armament anymore, Sentinel? Hehe…what’s wrong? Are you feeling nostalgic? What are you waiting for then? If you want to help then hurry up!”

Sensing the other spirit, Sealer immediately began to laugh and jest with its friend.

“Bzz…”

Bai Yunfei felt the Soul Sentinel Scarf on his head suddenly go warm to the touch. It was as if the happiness it felt was being transformed into an explosion of physical warmth and energy!

……

“Damn! Damnitall!! Why does he have so many annoying tricks?!”

Dongfang Ming had an unsightly expression on his face. Both of his eyes were narrowed into slits as he vented to himself with humiliated fury. By his side, the helix sword and the bone shield were fiercely protecting him from all harm as his core worked hard to rejuvenate his wounds.

Things weren’t going the way he planned it at all. He had been so close to killing Bai Yunfei but was forced to turn away at the last moment least he suffer the same fate he was trying so hard to inflict onto Bai Yunfei.

His ‘destroyed’ body was already looking much better compared to before. The hole in his torso was for the most part healed, but the other parts of his body was still looking as messy as ever. Both of his arms had yet to heal since he hadn’t any available energy to heal his body… 

Controlling his helix sword to fend off the swarm of attacks already required nearly half of his concentration, but it was the combined ‘attacks’ of Sealer and Core that was the most troublesome.

“Hm?!” He paused, something had piqued his attention. “This…this is a third Regalia?! But how!?

“Ugh!!”

A lightning bolt slammed into his chest. Because of his gap in concentration, the helix sword failed to protect him fully and allowed an attack to slip past it. The acrid smell of charred flesh filled the air as his right shoulder opened up once more.

“He has a third Regalia aside from the Soul Sealing Mandate and the Core Stone!!”

Since the spirit of the Soul Sentinel Scarf was usually ‘hidden’ away in itself, its aura was so faint that not even Dongfang Ming was able to sense it. As a result, Dongfang Ming was greatly surprised to sense its presence now.

This changed everything, Dongfang Ming only accounted for two Regalia. A third one would most definitely shift the scales for the worse for him!

As powerful as a demonic core was, Dongfang Ming’s spirit could only barely defend against two Regalia. The combined powers of three Regalia would definitely overpower him!

That wasn’t a fact Bai Yunfei really knew, but his three Regalia were telling him that the odds were in his favor. Elated, he started to muster more soulforce to his arms. Hands clapping in front of his chest, Bai Yunfei began to form a set of familiar handseals!

Flames burst to life around his arms. Spiralling, they traveled down from his shoulders to his hands before extending outwards as two dragons!

The Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst!

“Roar!!”

Raw energy flooded the world as the two dragons snapped their maws at everything in its way. Like floods of water, the elemental fire surged forward until they came close enough to engulf Dongfang Ming in them!

“Boom!!!”

The world itself felt like it was being bombarded with explosions as elemental fire blew everywhere, blasting everyone with a hot wave of heat. Even the robes of Bai Yunfei were affected by the heatwave despite his distance.

“Almost there! Give him one more blow, Yunfei!!”

“Alright!!”

His body was screaming at him from the exertion, but Bai Yunfei persisted. Now was the time to finish it all!

Energy started to flow around Bai Yunfei’s arms once more as he readied a second Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst… 

“Bzz…”

But then, the Phantasm itself began to shudder and shake!

“What?! Why now of all times?!”

Alarmed, Bai Yunfei looked around himself at the Phantasm.

The world within the Interdimensional Phantasm could only persist for fifteen minutes at most. After that, it’d need to expel everything inside of it and wait a while before the Interdimensional Phantasm could take in anything else. In other words…the time limit was up!!

The iridescent light of the Phantasm was already fading away. Faster and faster, the real world was quickly starting to reveal itself around them. Bai Yunfei could already start to sense the auras of the other combatants.

“Boom!!”

An explosion rocked the world the moment the Phantasm faded away. Amidst the sea of flames from the first Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst, a dark-red light began to overtake everything!

Soon, the red light became a ravenous whirlpool, taking in everything within its area at a maniacal rate!!