There was no way Bai Xiaochun couldn't be startled by the sudden appearance of more than fifty savage giants. He had been impressed with the statue to begin with, but this new development left his eyes flickering. Then he heard how the old man referred to himself, and realized that this was no ordinary soul cultivator.
Furthermore, these giants were different from the other savages Bai Xiaochun had seen in battle. Although giants in the armies he had seen were numerous, and abounded with killing intent, they were very similar to the rogue soul cultivators he had seen. They were disorganized and unable to work together. These fifty giants he was facing right now were clearly different.
There was something even colder about their demeanor, and the madness lurking within them caused Bai Xiaochun's pupils to constrict. Clearly, these giants practiced some special type of cultivation that made them elite among their savage compatriots.
Even their armor was beyond ordinary, and capable of defending them against his Frigid Paragon powers. Plus, the power of their formation was such that they could easily protect the old man as he fled. Simultaneously, when the power of that formation reached its pinnacle, it thrummed with an energy similar to the spell formation giants of the River-Defying Sect!
That was a power similar to the cultivation base of a Nascent Soul expert!
Of even more concern to Bai Xiaochun was the giant ghost statue, which contained a bit of deva-level defense power. Even if he managed to use his Frigid Paragon powers to freeze all of the elite savages in place, it was the power of a deva that formed the nexus of the spell formation.
"So, is this the true power of the Wildlands...?" he thought. Over the course of the battles he had fought with the Wildlands armies, he had slowly come to look down upon them. But now, such feelings were fading away.
Within the spell formation, the old man's eyes glittered with killing intent. "How dare you attack me after I revealed my identity. Do you have a death wish or something?!"
Although he was a bit intimidated by Bai Xiaochun's display of strength, he knew that if he didn't kill him, the enmity caused because of the stolen deva beast soul was not something that could be easily resolved at a later date.
Bai Xiaochun chuckled coldly. Staring the old man in the eye, he slowly said, "What's so impressive about ganging up on people? Do you have the guts to fight me in a duel?!"
In response, the old soul cultivator laughed as loudly as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the entire world. Eyes flaring with icy killing intent, he said, "Are you a moron or something? So what if I'm ganging up on you? What are you going to do about it?!"
With that, he lifted his right arm in preparation to give the order to kill Bai Xiaochun.
However, it was in that moment that Bai Xiaochun also started laughing. Lifting his chin up proudly, he suddenly revealed a jade slip, which he then crushed between his fingers.
"Fine. Ganging up it is. Come, my brothers!"
The old soul cultivator was taken aback by Bai Xiaochun's words. Then, sensing a change in the wind, he looked off into the distance.
Suddenly, dozens of beams of light appeared off in the distance to shoot toward them.
The old man laughed coldly. "Hmph. That's not very many peop--"
However, before he could finish his sentence, more beams of light appeared in a different direction. Rumbling sounds echoed out as, within the blink of an eye, dozens upon dozens of beams of light appeared, shooting through the air at blinding speed.
Within the briefest of moments, hundreds of beams of light could be seen!
The old man's face turned ashen, choking on his own breath and trembling physically. And yet, things weren't over yet. Hundreds more beams of light began to speed toward the area, causing the old man's defenses to begin to vibrate.
There were a thousand of them, causing the old soul cultivator's face to turn as white as a sheet of paper. Eyes wide, he began to pant with incredulity and disbelief.
"This... this is impossible!!"
He had no idea why so many people had been hiding in the area, nor was he sure how he had missed any signs of them. Most frightening of all was that, without fail, all of them were in the Core Formation stage!!
There were even quite a few who were in the same cultivation stage as himself, the great circle of Core Formation!
Feeling very dashing and spirited, Bai Xiaochun pointed at the old man and shouted, "Brothers, put this old man to death!"
"Die!!" shouted the thousand cultivators, pouring through the air like a grand army, causing intense rumbling sounds to fill the area as their murderous auras raged. These were top troops under the command of an intrepid officer, a sight which caused the old soul cultivator's mind to spin. Even more shocking was that the fifty savage giants gasped and began to back up. Not even they could possibly have dreamed that they would end up facing a huge number of cultivators in this place!
The old soul cultivator could immediately tell that if this group massed together, there would be no way for him to make it out of the situation alive.
"Flee!!" he screamed. The fifty savage giants immediately drew upon the full power of the spell formation, which accelerated rapidly in an attempt to get the man outside of the closing net.
"Get him, boys!" Bai Xiaochun roared.
Although the spell formation was moving at incredible speed, these were cultivators of the five legions. Furthermore, they had gone through a life-or-death trial with Bai Xiaochun, and had been hand-picked from tens of thousands of other soldiers. Therefore, it was with murderous ferocity that they shot toward the fifty savage giants.
The majestic sight of a thousand of his men attacking fifty giants with deadly intent immediately got Bai Xiaochun's blood boiling, so he shouted, "Fudge! How dare you steal my deva beast soul! Even worse, you actually went so far as to gang up on me!"
There was no way the fifty giants could last for long under such an attack. They fought back, roaring, and yet the thousand cultivators of Bai Xiaochun's regiment were well-trained, and quickly fell into their own formations, which the giants were incapable of defending against.
As the giants were destroyed in spectacular fashion, the old soul cultivator trembled, clearly on the verge of tears because of the unfairness of the situation.
"You big bully!!" he screamed, his hair flying about wildly as the few surviving giants tried to force their way out of the situation. "What's so impressive about ganging up on people? If you have what it takes, why don't you fight me in a duel?!"
"Are you a moron or something?" Bai Xiaochun replied proudly, spitting the old man's words right back at him. "So what if I'm ganging up on you? What are you going to do about it?!"
With that, he shot toward the old man with deadly force.
Soon, more bitter screams rang out.
By this point, all of the fifty giants were dead, most of them having chosen to go out in self-detonation. However, the resulting explosions were of little use. Bai Xiaochun had been prepared for that, and used his Frigid Paragon energy to dispel the force. As a result, not a single one of his men were killed!
Actually, if he had allowed his men to go all out, disregarding even their own safety, it would have been even easier to get rid of the fifty giants. However, he didn't do that. He wanted every single person that he took out of the Great Wall with him to get back safely!
As the last of the fifty giants died, the statue of the giant ghost above the old soul cultivator's head began to power up to attack.
But how could Bai Xiaochun possibly let that happen? Now that the old man was alone on the battlefield, Bai Xiaochun sped forward and lashed out with his palm. In the blink of an eye, a force like that of a mountain slapped into the enormous statue.
A boom could be heard, and blood sprayed out of the old man's mouth. As for the statue, it immediately began to spin downward toward the ground, clearly on the verge of collapsing.
"Get that statue!" Bai Xiaochun barked as he pursued the old man. "It's definitely a precious item!"
Some of his men immediately went to retrieve the giant ghost statue.
Meanwhile, the vengeful souls had all been sucked back into the crater, which had fully collapsed into an enormous, mist-filled pit.
The old man finally fell down out of the sky and landed at the edge of that pit, coughing up blood. Bitter laughter escaped his lips; the attack from just now had revealed to him how shockingly powerful his opponent really was. His five yin organs and six yang organs were almost completely destroyed. His soul power was in chaos, and the flame of his life force was about to wink out.
"I'm the seventh apprentice of Marquis Lan, direct subordinate of Giant Ghost King! It doesn't matter where you're from, if you kill me, then you'll die for sure!!" Despairing, the old man made one last-ditch effort to frighten Bai Xiaochun.
However, even as the words escaped his lips, Bai Xiaochun appeared in front of him and reached out to grab his neck. Then he relieved him of the deva beast soul and said, "Who gives a crap about some Giant Ghost King? I'm an army officer, fool!" The disdain in his voice was clear as he laid some restrictive spells onto the old man and then tossed him over to some of the men in his regiment.
"Take him with us!"