“I see, so the person I captured was the avatar of the Wind Lightning School’s headmaster…”
A sigh escaped from Bai Yunfei’s lips. He was currently seated within the grand halls of the Yao clan. Now that the battle was over, everyone was seated here to talk about what the clan would do next.
Despite living in Yao City for a month, he was living in the compounds as a guard and wasn’t privy to much. Only now was he caught up to speed when Yao Wuchen told him about the situation with the allied schools.
“Yunfei, did you really…‘capture’ Duan Leiting’s avatar?”
Dan Teng just had to ask. Bai Yunfei might’ve said it, but everyone here was having a major time trying to believe it.
“I did.” Bai Yunfei nodded, “I sealed him using the Soul Sealing Mandate and had him stored inside the Core World.”
Neither the Core Stone or the Soul Sealing Mandate was kept a secret to the people here. Bai Yunfei knew the Yao clan already knew of him being in possession of both Regalias.
“Gasp!”
Several of the elders gasped. Hearing confirmation of Bai Yunfei having those two Regalias gave them a bigger shock than they expected despite already knowing it. Looks of shock and awe were given to him shortly afterward.
“Bai Yunfei, my young friend. Will you be able to do what we discussed?” Yao Wuchen asked. The matter with Duan Leiting wasn’t as important as this next question. “The inhabitants of our city can be estimated to be around ten thousand, soul cultivators included. This excludes the familiars, which number around five thousand. Will they be able to enter the Core World?”
“Rest assured, clan head. There’s no problem.” Bai Yunfei nodded.
“Phew…” Several of the elders sighed. A heavy weight was now lifted off their shoulders and many of them could visibly relax now.
“That is good to hear. I’ll have the preparations made for the citizens to evacuate. Bai Yunfei, my young friend, you must want to rest and acquaint yourself with your new strength. Please rest for the night. If nothing else arises, then we’ll have the citizens enter the Core World tomorrow morning. We don’t know when the two Soul Emperor will attack, so a prompt entry into the Core World should be made.”
“That’s fine with me.” Bai Yunfei nodded. The enemies had only temporarily retreated, after all. They weren’t gone for good yet. A smart idea would be to rest and prepare for tomorrow, but there was something else Bai Yunfei wanted…something he needed to take care of before he could rest.
“I’ll head escort Yunfei back to his room with brother Wu then.” Dan Teng rose up.
Bai Yunfei nodded. Together, the three of them left the halls and towards the courtyard Bai Yunfei used to stay in. Naturally, he didn’t need any ‘escorting’, he needed answers. And Dan Teng knew that, hence the offer to escort him in the first place.
Yao Wuchen only talked about what was happening to the Yao clan in general. The matters of the outside world the past three years would need to be explained by Dan Teng and Wu Dijian.
“What?! Prince Hao has rebelled?! What in the world?!”
Rang the surprised voice of Bai Yunfei within an elegant room.
He, Wu Dijian, and Dan Teng were seated by a large table to discuss the matters of the outside world. The first topic was about ‘Prince Hao’s rebellion’ and already Bai Yunfei was about to leap from his seat in shock.
Prince Hao is the brother of His Majesty Wu Hong, also known as Wu Hao. He was the assistant headmaster of the Tianhun School and one of the most influential persons on the continent. Bai Yunfei met the man before, and he distinctly remembered Wu Hao as being a rather amicable person.
So…how could a person like that rebel?!
“No one outside the Royal Family knows the reason for it. But that’s what it is…” Dan Teng explained, “The rebellion started half a year ago with the Tianhun School being split in half. In just a single night, the entire continent was plagued by this rebellion…”
Dan Teng continued to explain even more about what was going on, but the more Bai Yunfei listened to him, the more Bai Yunfei felt extremely shocked.
Half of the Tianhun School was involved in this schism between the two brothers, and now there was a huge war throughout the continent for the throne!
And the main ‘backer’ of Wu Hao was…the Soul Refining School!!
Their alliance was made known when Wu Hao rebelled. Within a single month, the previously silent Soul Refining School ‘helped’ Wu Hao seize control of dozens of the western provinces!
The rebel army grew in number shortly afterward when many of the powerful factions within the continent took Wu Hao’s side. Among them were the Beast Taming School and the Wind Lightning School!
This was a rebellion many years in the making and yet occurred without anyone ever being the wiser. The rebel army moved swiftly like thunder and was practically impossible to quell!
Never in the last two thousand years since the empire’s founding had something like this pop up. War was being waged everywhere with practically a new battle taking place every day.
No ‘order’ was left on the continent with all the factions fighting one another. The Tianhun School used to be the mediator, but they were divided in two now. This led to many people with grudges for someone else taking the initiative to settle them, meaning several other unrelated wars were being had.
In less than half a year, the rebel army had control of dozens of the western provinces and was as powerful as the ‘rightful’ emperor’s army!
Of the Five Great Families, the house of Zheng in the Capital stood with the Royal Family obviously. The house of Tang stood with the Royal Family as well. The Li from the Western River Province and the Sun in the Quiet Frontier Province joined the rebel army, however, and the fifth house, the Wang from the Eastern Shu Province announced their neutrality in the matter.
It was unknown what the Five Elemental Schools were thinking. The Crafting School, on the other hand, took the side of the Royal Family.
There was also reports of the highly reclusive Fate School starting to appear…
All in all, there was only one word that could describe the state of the continent—chaos!
—————————
Night had fallen upon Yao City. Dan Teng and Wu Dijian left Bai Yunfei’s room to return to their own respective rooms to rest, leaving Bai Yunfei to sit there by the table in silence. He was finding it difficult to take in everything he heard.
“Huu….”
A long exhale escaped from Bai Yunfei. Now that the news had fully sunken in, Bai Yunfei found himself gradually shaking free from the shock.
The Yun’s Soul Ring twinkled with a faint light on his left hand. Raising it to eye level, Bai Yunfei stared fondly at the ring.
“Soon…we’ll be able to see each other soon…”
Wu Dijian told Bai Yunfei when he disappeared three years ago, the Crafting School, Tang, and Zheng spent no small amount of capital to look for Bai Yunfei. But after a year of looking, the majority of each factions started to believe the worst had happened. With the Soul Refining School lying low, any traces or rumors of Bai Yunfei had essentially dried up. In the end, most of them gave up the search. Only one person and two soulbeasts kept going.
Tang Xinyun, Xiao Qi, and Long Lan…
The three of them were relentless. For three years, the three searched for Bai Yunfei high and low. It didn’t matter how tiny the rumors were, the three of them went wherever they thought Bai Yunfei might be! Their search only grew even more intense when the Soul Refining School resurfaced to aid the rebellion half a year ago. They even joined in on a few battles since…if they could find a soul refiner, then it’d be possible to find out about Bai Yunfei’s whereabouts!
Bai Yunfei was touched. He desperately wanted nothing more than to go find the three of them, but he couldn’t. Their reunion would have to be prolonged by just a bit longer…
“There’s something else that should be taken care of right now…”
Bai Yunfei looked to the Core Stone. He looked at it for a brief moment before turning to look to another part of the room.
Laying there on a velvet rug was a yellow figure—Lao Sha.
The dog hadn’t woken ever since he was brought here by the trainees. Its battle with the invaders took a lot out of Lao Sha.
There wasn’t anything majorly wrong with the dog aside from it being fatigued. Bai Yunfei knew that after scanning its body with his soulsense.
Bai Yunfei thought long and hard on how Lao Sha was somehow able to absorb elemental energy, but he could never come to a logical explanation for it. He didn’t know how Lao Sha had such an ability, where that ability might’ve come from, or even how the dog was doing.
If he had to guess, Bai Yunfei would say the dog was probably sleeping off the energy it digested. Maybe it was digesting it?
He just knew that the dog wasn’t in any danger to be concerned over, so he could leave the dog to sleep before getting any answers. Bai Yunfei sat back into his chair and closed his eyes.
By the time he reopened them, he and Lao Sha had disappeared from the room…