âHmph, looks like I overestimated you. Youâre just someone with more soul armaments and luckier than they should beâŚâ
Feng Mingxu felt his heart slow back down to its regular pace now that Bai Yunfei was resting in his own pool of blood. For a while, Feng Mingxu had his doubts whether or not Bai Yunfei was just hiding his strength, but it seemed like he was wrong about that.
He walked over to Bai Yunfei with the intent to slowly interrogate him for answers.
As he was just about to grab Bai Yunfei, something from the corner of his eyes caused Feng Mingxu to suddenly whirl around!
âAhh! What is that?!â
One of his companions cried out in fear while he was turning. A large brown shadow had at some point shot down from the shadows of the mountain to run at the small-eyed youth and then send him flying!
This one was an Early-stage Soul Sprite. He shouldâve been anchored to his spot rather than be sent flying!
As a Late-stage Soul Ancestor, Feng Mingxu felt like he had a decent level of skill with his soulsense. Anything within two hundred meters of him could be sensed without a problem in the general case, but right now he couldnât even sense a single undulation of soulforce!
It took him a second to catch sight of the mysterious new object. He and the other bushy-eyebrowed man both stared at the object, incredulous by what it was that knocked down their companion!
ItâŚit was a huge dog!
The most terrifying thing was how this dog had the small-eyed youthâs throat in between its fangs. The head was bent at an awkward angle and the eyes were completely dull of color. He was dead!
The dog managed to somehow snap the neck of a Soul Sprite!
âA soulbeast?!â Feng Mingxuâs eyes flew wide open. âIâŚI donât see any soulforceâŚis it not yet a soulbeast?! But how?!â
Feng Mingxu couldnât sense any soulforce coming out from the dog, meaning this dog wasnât even at the level of a class one soulbeast! An entity stronger than a regular beast and yet weaker than a soulbeastâŚa halfing.Â
That had to be the reason why he didnât realize its presence earlier. His soulsense was paying close attention to soulforce, to which this halfling had none. ButâŚhow was a halfing able to pull off the speed and strength to bite and kill a Soul Sprite!?
âBang!!â
While Feng Mingxu was trying to process the arrival of this dog into his calculations, a furious ball of heat exploded from behind him!
Eyes widening, Feng Mingxu whirled around to watch asâŚa miniature sun suddenly materialized into being!
âLao Sha!â
When Lao Sha appeared and Feng Mingxu was distracted, Bai Yunfei took the opportunity to grab at his dislocated right arm with his left and pop it back into place!
âCrack!!â
Droplets of sweat appeared on Bai Yunfeiâs forehead as the pain of setting his shoulder joint shot through his body. Grunting, he planted his right palm onto the ground and sprung himself back up!
His right arm was back to full functionality!
Back on his own two feet, Bai Yunfei looked down at his right hand and began to concentrate!
The Ardent Sun Glove on that hand began to shine a brilliant red light before a fiery whirlpool formed above it. Elemental fire was pulled into this maelstrom and quickly aided the whirlpoolâs growth!
In no time at all, the whirlpool grew to a diameter of a dozen meters around Bai Yunfeiâs head!
His body trembled with pain and fatigue. Bai Yunfeiâs eyes were practically bloodshot as he glared at Feng Mingxu and threw the whirlpool forward!
âWhooshâŚâ
The whirlpool transformed into a small fireball and shot towards Feng Mingxu like a speeding bullet! It was so hot that it managed to leave behind scorch marks on the ground beneath it!
âWhat?!â
That was what Feng Mingxu saw when he turned around. The blood drained away from his face as he yelled out loud and he moved quickly to try and protect himself with a layer of green light.
The fireball crashed into the barrier he threw up and exploded at once!
âBoom!!!â
âAaagghhhh!!!â
The explosion caused by the fireball was so massive that the area beneath Bai Yunfei and Feng Mingxu shook. The latter was completely enveloped by the explosion and the flames, and only the terrified screams of pain could be heard from him over the explosion!
âSenior Feng!!â
The thick-eyebrowed man was frightened out of his mind. He let out a loud scream for his senior and tried to probe into the area with his soulsense butâŚthe aura of Feng Mingxu was nowhere to be seen!
âIs he dead?!â
The very first thought he had was that Feng Mingxu had died. His mind went blank at the thought. How could this have happened?Â
While he was distracted by the possibility of his seniorâs death, an orange figure suddenly shot forth at him!
âAh!!â He screamed out loud. Black light erupted from his body and into his hand as he threw a punch!
âBang!â
He felt his elemental darkness infused fist make contact with something else, though the object he hit didnât exactly fly away after being struck. He only felt a throb of pain before everything went black for himâŚ
âThudâŚâ
Like his small-eyed companion, the head of this one snapped at a strange angle before his body crumpled to the ground. Lao Sha landed off near the side with several wisps of black light surrounding its body, though the black light was immediately dispersed once it shook its body.
Now there was only one person left alive: the short-haired one Bai Yunfei knocked away earlier. He was still lying on the ground looking as still as a corpse. He might be left without the power to fight, but the man was still very much aliveâŚÂ
âAhh!!â
Suddenly, a heart-pounding scream erupted from a distance, causing the sole survivor to shiver and look off towards the source. From where the flames were flickering out of existence from, a person could be seen howling at the top of his lungs as he held his head!
It was Bai Yunfei!
The flames that swallowed Feng Mingxu were gone now. The only thing to be seen were was the scorched crater, but Feng Mingxu was nowhere to be seenâŚÂ
Lao Sha froze up once it heard Bai Yunfei scream. It turned around to look at the short-haired male with a snarl as if thinking he was responsible for Bai Yunfeiâs screaming. Two short steps later, the dog was upon the male and brought one of its paws down with a furious howlâŚÂ
âWaâwaiâaaargghh!!â
Powerless to even defend himself, the male was only able to say a single syllable before Lao Shaâs claw smashed into his right leg and crushed it!
âCrack crack crackâŚâ
Three successive blows to the other three limbs were made shortly after, leaving the male with all of his limbs utterly broken!
The pain proved too much for the male and he soon found himself fainting shortly afterward.
Somehow, Lao Sha knew that it had to restrain itself and leave one alive, but it also knew how to be quite cruel too!
Now that the person was dealt with, Lao Sha lost all interest in him and trotted quickly over to Bai Yunfeiâs side. It whined as it circled around Bai Yunfei, the pain his master was in left the dog completely confused on what it could even do.
Bai Yunfei was suffering from a backlash in using too much soulforce! The fireball effect of the Ardent Sun Glove took out all of Bai Yunfeiâs soulforce and now he was suffering from the very same pain he suffered from when upgrading a stone in the mountain with the primal stones. But unfortunately for him, the pain for this was far more intense!
It felt like multiple blades were stabbing into his very soul and tearing it out piece by piece!
While his soul was being riddled with âholesâ, countless memories began to pour out as well. Memories both strange and familiar poured out into Bai Yunfeiâs mind for him to look at, but with how much pain this backlash was grinding away at his nerves, Bai Yunfei didnât even seem to notice those memoriesâŚÂ