A single word. One that was spoken almost like a whisper and yet held the power to freeze Duan Leiting right where he stood!
It was because of the white ball of light Bai Yunfei threw. It wasn’t even touching Duan Leiting when Bai Yunfei gave the order. Unfolding, the white ball began to splash white light everywhere around the area!
Including the area where Duan Leiting stood!
Fast!
No one could even tell when the ball of light finished expanding. One moment ago it had yet to expand in size and in the next moment, Duan Leiting was nowhere to be seen within it!
It wasn’t just his disappearance that was strange. People expected him to fly out from the white ball, but…he didn’t! He wasn’t moving inside the light! His aura wasn’t even fluctuating!!
Duan Leiting’s avatar used to shine with two lights. One green and one violet. But now those two colors were gone, leaving behind a hazy-looking silhouette of Duan Leiting’s avatar!
Duan Leiting’s skinny frame could now be seen now that the mysterious light obscuring his avatar was gone. He was frozen still in a leaning backward position as if he was trying to retreat, but something was forcing him to stay put.
Floating in the middle of Bai Yunfei and Duan Leiting was a single white light. In that white light was a white talisman of some kind. It was the size of a palm and had a soft glow emanating from it…
This was…the Soul Sealing Mandate!
Bai Yunfei had the Soul Sealing Mandate on him!
And it’s power…was somehow reaching a greater distance than expected! It was even covering a larger area than the time when patriarch Qin or Nether used it!
“Whoosh!!”
Bai Yunfei hadn't stopped moving at all. Him throwing the Soul Sealing Mandate forward was the opening move for him to close in on the other Soul Emperor. The distance between the two Soul Emperor was shortening now. He was close to being right in front of Duan Leiting!
The Soul Sealing Mandate had stopped moving by now. The area touched by its light was starting to shrink as Bai Yunfei closed in. By the time it was hardly even a few meters in radius, Bai Yunfei was within arm's reach of the Soul Sealing Mandate...
A series of ripples flowed outward from Bai Yunfei’s right arm into the Soul Sealing Mandate. The white light from the Soul Sealing Mandate began to shrink even faster. Soon…the white light was gone, and so was Duan Leiting!
The elemental energy that once covered the skies of Yao City was gone at once. Only the energy of Bai Yunfei was left there where he stood.
It was as though everything that happened in the last few seconds was a trick. An illusion of some kind with Bai Yunfei being the magician to bring in the curtain call...
“Ahh!!!”
The anguished roar of someone could be heard a moment later—it was coming from the skies further south of Yao City!
Bai Yunfei whirled towards the source to see what was the matter. His battle with Duan Leiting had been so exciting he nearly forgot about the other battle!
Not even ten seconds ago, when Duan Leiting had only just fired the first Bellow of the Thunder God.
The Yao clansmen and allied Soul Kings were all floating there in the sky. Stunned by Bai Yunfei's fight with Duan Leiting, all they could do was float there and watch! And that was when another powerful aura made itself known to them!
A Soul Emperor!
And then another Soul Emperor!
The faces of Yao Wuchen and his clansmen dropped at once. In direct opposition, the faces of those from the Soul Refining School brightened with glee!
It took a moment for the beast tamers to understand who this newcomer was. Ma Xucheng looked almost expectant of this person’s arrival and sneered. He watched as the second newcomer raised his right hand and wave it as he would wave a baton!
One giant ripple started to show in the space in front of him before…something large popped out!
It was a giant two-meter tall humanoid. Its body was like that of a man and even wore heavy armor as a soldier might, but…‘it’ had the head of a tiger!
And the character for ‘king’ was clearly showing on the top of its forehead!
This ‘person’ (A/N: let’s call him a person for now) looked as if he was asleep at first. Before the second Soul Emperor transmitted his soulforce into him, his aura was as still as a statue.
In the next second…his eyes flew wide open!
“Boom!!”
Both of his eyes shined brilliantly like two exceptionally-bright stars in the night sky when it awoke. Unleashed, the person’s aura blew across the battlefield with awe-inspiring vigor!
Golden light shot up from the person’s head into the sky. Expanding in size, the light eventually took on the form of a giant tiger’s head and unleashed a heaven-shaking roar!
His aura was exceptionally powerful. Every single person had the same realization the moment they felt his aura…this humanoid was a Soul Emperor!!
“The…the Demon-eyed Tiger King! It’s the Demon-eyed Tiger King!! They have him as a soulbeast puppet!” Wu Dijian exclaimed in horror!
“Don’t look into his eyes!!”
“Ahhh!! Ahhh!!!!”
A warning was made at once, but it was too late for two of the Yao clansmen. The moment their eyes met with the bright eyes of the Demon-eyed Tiger King, they began to scream out loud!
The two Soul Kings looked as though they saw something extremely traumatizing. Any semblance of color drained away from their faces like water down a spigot. Their bodies started to tremble violently. One of them, an Early-stage Soul King, puked out a large volume of blood before fainting!
“Seal!!”
The Yao clansmen hadn’t even managed to do anything about the Demon-eyed Tiger King when they all heard a single command!
Their eyes snapped to Bai Yunfei instinctively. They saw Bai Yunfei first and then gradually looked back to where he was looking at. Somehow, even the Demon-eyed Tiger King’s eyes were honed in on Bai Yunfei now. And even more curious was how it looked shocked by what it saw!
Bai Yunfei was at this exact moment waving his right hand in front of a defenseless Duan Leiting. And then…Duan Leiting disappeared from sight!
Duan Leiting’s avatar disappeared from sight!
Not a single person knew what in the world happened to Duan Leiting. Their minds couldn’t process it.
Too many things were happening in this battle at too fast of a pace.
First was the appearance of Duan Leiting's avatar. This marked the first appearance of a Soul Emperor. A brief intermission was had when he attacked the Yao clansmen, but Bai Yunfei was his real target. Duan Leiting flew at once into the city to deal with him, only to have Bai Yunfei fly out to greet him first.
Then the two began to fight, with Duan Leiting immediately being the disadvantaged one. He unleashed two Bellows of the Thunder God to deal with Bai Yunfei, but that ended up being fruitless.
The tertiary main event was when yet another Soul Emperor appeared on the allied school’s side. The second Soul Emperor followed up on this event with a soulbeast puppet of his own, a Soul Emperor leveled Demon-eyed Tiger King.
Last was Duan Leiting being sealed by the Soul Sealing Mandate and then stored away into Bai Yunfei’s Core Stone…
Between Bai Yunfei and Duan Leiting, there were three exchanges at most, excluding the soul attacks. And in the end…that didn’t even amount to thirty seconds!
In the first twenty seconds, the allied schools were relishing in the satisfaction that they had Duan Leiting on their sides. And in the last ten seconds…Duan Leiting was already dealt with!
Hardly anyone could be blamed for not being able to react to this…
All was silent for a while as everyone on both respective sides tried to gather their thoughts.
“I—It’s…it’s…it’s hi—him! It’s him!!!”
Qin Bangjie was the one to break the silence. Going as white as a ghost and wide-eyed like a dead fish, the Half-emperor was pointing at the floating figure above Yao City like if they were a ghost! The man couldn’t even stop himself from shaking wildly, whether from fear or shock.
“It’s…it’s impossible!! How…how can he be here!? This cannot be!! Ahhhhh!!!!”
The way he was gesturing and jabbering was already highly uncharacteristic of him. Him screaming at the end made it all the more terrifying to hear!
The man looked as though he was descending into madness! A drop in rational so fast that one might think Qin Bangjie was being chased by the reaper itself!
Everyone—especially those from the allied forces—was trying to figure out what could possibly elicit such a strong emotion from Qin Bangjie when…
Someone noticed the second Soul Emperor coming to help the allied schools come to an immediate halt. The shroud of darkness this second Soul Emperor was bringing with it stopped as well. Shuddering as though it was sharing the emotions as the Soul Emperor, the darkness began to…go back in the opposite direction!
The darkness was retreating into the direction it came from with speeds as fast as before!
This was a completely unprecedented sight! A Soul Emperor from the Soul Refining School was…running away!